Update March 2019: As many of you know, China spent a good portion of last year (2018) cracking down on VPN usage throughout the country and even threatened to ban all non-state sanctioned VPNs. Obviously, that hasn’t happened (expats are still using VPNs today). So what’s the deal? Do the best VPNs for China still work? As an expat who has spent over a decade in China, I’d like to offer my thoughts and recommendations.

Sadly this website, like many others, has been blocked in China since 2009 under what is affectionately referred to as “The Great Firewall” (i.e. China’s censorship). Some websites, Like Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram in China, are blocked because the government can’t control the sharing of ideas on the platforms. Others, like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, are blocked because they are labeled “western media”.

I have no idea why FarWestChina was blocked – other than the fact that I’m talking about Xinjiang, one of the most sensitive regions in China. And there’s nothing I can do to unblock the site. Trust me, I’ve tried everything short of knocking on a government official’s door.

The only way I’ve been able to work online from in China is through what is known as a VPN, or a Virtual Private Network.

Because I have over 8 years 10 years of first-hand experience with over 20 different VPN services, I get more than a few emails every month from people asking me what I recommend as the best VPN for China in 2019. It’s an obvious need for anybody living in China but more and more people are realizing that online security is something netizens in every country should consider.

I’m not trying to hard-sell anybody here…more than anything I just want to provide some helpful information for those people who need to get a new VPN. A few of the links here and in the video are affiliate links which means that at no additional cost to you I will be compensated if you purchase the service. I have continually used each of these services from my home here in China over the past year, so I’m confident about my recommendations.

When it comes to the best VPNs for China, I’ve given you three ways to hear my thoughts: watch the video, check out the comparison chart or read my person reviews for each VPN below.

Best VPNs for China 2019 | Video Reviews

Click below to hear my thoughts and see each of these best VPNs for China in action.

As I mentioned in the video above, there are literally hundreds of VPNs to choose from on the market and there are quite a few good ones that didn’t make this list.

These, however, have stood the test of time (they are all at least 5 years old), have made a specific effort to reach the China market, they’ve been reliable and consistent over the past 3 years (that’s important), they all offer hundreds of servers across the globe and they all have unlimited bandwidth.

ExpressVPN in China (Editor’s Choice + 3 Free months)

ExpressVPN is my go-to VPN for China in 2019. I’m a huge fan of their overall design (which was just updated in January) – the website, desktop app and mobile app are all beautiful, quick to install and easy to use.

I always recommend ExpressVPN to anybody I know who doesn’t consider themselves tech-savvy for a couple of reasons.

It’s super easy to set up!

Their software is some of the best in the industry.

They offer a no-hassle, 30-day money back guarantee.

For those who desire simplicity and ease, ExpressVPN has been a solid option here in China for the past few years. You can check out their pricing here and if you use this link (which is an affiliate link), they’ll give you 3 months free on any annual plan!

NordVPN in China (75% off Discount Code!)

NordVPN has been a surprise addition to my VPN arsenal over past two years. They’ve purposefully entered the China market and are aggressively tackling the blocking issues that plague all the best VPNs in China.

There are a number of reasons I’ve come to like the NordVPN software and service.

The software is well-designed, both on computers & mobile devices.

They allow 6 simultaneous connections (most VPNs give 3-5)

They also offer a no-nonsense, 30-day money back guarantee.

In many cases, I often tell people to purchase both ExpressVPN and NordVPN (I have both) to figure out which one works best in your China location. They’re very competitively priced and run specials throughout the year. I always keep this link up-to-date so click here to learn about the latest deal:

Using VyprVPN in China (68% Discount)

I was turned on to VyprVPN about 4 years ago and have been incredibly impressed with the transparency of the company (just compare their about page with any other VPN).

Here’s what I love about VyprVPN:

Proprietary “Chameleon” connection protocol for added security

Transparency and honesty

Simple-to-use software

A 3-day FREE trial (but no 30-day money back guarantee)

VyprVPN has been around since 2009 but their parent company, GoldenFrog, has been around for even longer than that providing online services. I’ve spoken at length with some of their representatives and really like their focus on the China market, which is comforting considering how much the Chinese internet landscape changes.

Using PureVPN in China

PureVPN is another popular option here in China. They boast over 1 million users world-wide and their market share in China seems to be growing at a rapid pace.

While I wasn’t a big fan of their software at first, thankfully they have since updated the design and it functions much better. Their speeds are excellent and I found them to be the best in terms of streaming – at least for me out here in western China.

What you might find useful is their “Server Selection Tool” where you tell the software what you want to do (download, stream US content, stream UK content, etc) and it will tell you which servers best suit you needs.

A Look at 12VPN in China (10% Discount Code)

I’ve been a 12VPN customer since 2013 and in many ways it’s been my go-to VPN on my phone. Why? It’s simple and it just works…every time.

The software isn’t flashy and they don’t have a dedicated iPhone or Android app but setup for both was an easy download of one file that took me all of 5 minutes.

One of the things I’ve truly appreciated about 12VPN is their commitment to communication. I get periodic emails informing me of changes in the VPN and changes in the Great Firewall. For example, two years ago one of the submarine cables that connects Asia with North America was severed. Out of the 10 VPNs I had running at the time, 12VPN was the only one that let me know what was happening and why I should expect slower speeds on the Los Angeles servers.

In addition to VPN services, 12VPN is also one of the few companies that offers SmartDNS as part of their package (ExpressVPN does as well). I won’t go into details about what SmartDNS is (read about Smart DNS here), but suffice to say I use it to watch Netflix on my Apple TV in China and it is so much faster than connecting on a VPN.

Best of all, I have a 12VPN Discount Code that you can use! Just enter FWC10 to get 10% off your order.

VPNs to Avoid in China

Here’s the thing about the relationship between China and VPNs – every year China making changes that affect the landscape of VPN use within the country. If the VPN you choose doesn’t devote resources to adapt to these changes, that spells trouble for you.

This rules out most small VPN services such as Buffered or all the free services such as Hotspot Shield. Neither seem to have the manpower or resources to play the constant game of cat and mouse with China’s internet censors. I’ve had a difficult time connecting to their servers from within China.

Finally, despite its popularity in China, I personally don’t recommend Astrill VPN. My biggest problem was their customer support but the deal breaker was that they require users to provide their phone number for authentication. In China, that kind of connection between my VPN and my phone number is a big no-no.

Conclusion | Best VPN for China 2019

So that about covers it! Obviously there are plenty of VPN services which have been left out of this list, but I stand by the fact that if you’re coming to Asia, these are the best VPNs for China 2019.

If you’re here in China and using a VPN, leave a comment below to let me know what you use.

About Josh Summers

Josh is a writer, musician and entrepreneur who currently resides in Urumqi, capital of China's western province of Xinjiang. He has been traveling and writing about this region since 2006 and has no plans to stop in the near future.

I gave Astrill a try and had a pretty bad experience. A lot of people use them in China, though so that’s not a reason not to have them on this list.

The reason I didn’t include them as one of the best VPNs in China is because they’ve had multiple occasions this past year when their service went offline. They offered no good explanation and in my opinion this is unacceptable.

As an aside, I’m also very skeptical about the fact that they require my phone number in order to sign up (and they send me a text for verification). Their support staff told me that this “is necessary” and yet there is no other company that requires this. Since the point of a VPN is anonymity and security – this took Astrill down a few notches in my book.

So that’s why. They have a good service and I’m not trying to bash them…I just don’t think they’re the best for China users. Look around the internet for “Best VPNs in China”…you’ll see that I’m not the only one who thinks this either.

Hi, I have spent last 5 months in Kaifeng (Henan), I am living in Hangzhou (Zhejiang) right now.
I am a linux user, maybe astrill is not the best vpn service, but is the only one with full support for linux.
Openweb and “stealth vpn” work (sometimes not smoothly) on linux and android mobile phone. I have problems with standard openvpn, it simply doesn’t work.
I gave expressvpn and purevpn a try, I could use the pptp service (not always), nothing else.
When It will be possible to use Vyprvpn Chameleon service on linux, probably I will switch.
Other linux users have any suggestion?

ExpressVPN has a text based client that works quite well. I was pleasantly surprised to discover they can punch through consistently. I was curious if you tried it. As a Linux user a text based client shouldn’t bother you at all.

AirVPN has a full GUI with their Linux client that gives you a wide range of choices as far as protocol. I’ve had moderate success with them, but I suspect their methods are being detected (OpenVPN over SSH or SSL).

I haven’t tried Witopia in several years. If you gave them a shot in the last couple of years I’d be interested to know what you think of their Linux setup.

I asked the question to the technical service and here is their answer :

“It’s used for user verification only. We do not send code to email because email can be hacked.
We will not use your phone for any other purpose nor we will share it with any 3rd party. We will never contact you by phone, the only message you will ever get from us is verification code during registration process.
Another reason is security., for example to prevent credit card fraudsters to use our service, we require each customer to be verified via SMS.”

Hi Josh,
Thanks for this good one.
Been using LibertyVpn for 3 years now after having tested a couple of ones.
One question though.
In terms of connection speed, which one would you put on top?
Cheers.

Hey Bruno, thanks for the comment! I’ve actually never heard of LibertyVPN before so thanks for sharing.

Here’s my thing with connection speeds: I don’t think it’s a fair assessment of VPNs, at least here in China. You see, I know for a fact that my internet speeds in Xinjiang are different than somebody’s in Beijing or Xi’an. Sometimes my internet speeds differ on a daily basis even from my home! There are so many different factors that affect speed here in China including router (crappy Chinese routers slow things down), ISP (there’s a vast difference between ISP speeds here in China), location and many more.

So all that to say, I’ve never seen significant speed differences between VPNs in China. Sometimes my connection with one VPN will slow significantly so I’ll switch VPNs only to find that it’s incredibly slow with all the other VPNs.

I’ve seen other VPN review sites test speeds for each service and I just don’t think it’s as helpful as you imagine. My advice is to always test what works well in your location and then expect that speeds will go up and down throughout the year. This is China!

Hi Josh,
Did not realized you guy were in Xinjiang…
Got some family relative overthere and spent some time in this lovely place last year after the events…
Agree with you on the speed issue and the associated root cause laying somewhere in between the Isps and the GF (with most probably a kind of cooperation in between).
LibertyVpn is the one I am using so far and it provides amongst others a french IP allowing me to access the French stuff ( I am French….. I see you coming… Alright! nobody’s perfect, right?)…
This beeing said I noticed over the last 10 years that accessing outside based web sites was beeing more complicated, even through Vps chanels, indicating an on-going maturating of our big GF.
For your information I had confirmation lately that our Dear Leaders had implemented a new technology allowing probing VPN transmission fluxes. I have only one local involved source for this info but I indeed noticed since January the first that any connexion through vpn (Liberty) was reseted after 3 minutes.
I contacted the company and still waiting for a feedback. I’ll keep you posted.
Would be curious to see if you noticed something similar on your side.
Anyway, gonna stick now on your posts. Quite informative…..
Cheers,
Bruno

Thank you. I was using Astrill for years and it just stopped working. So I have switched to VyprVPN. However in last few days I don’t know why, but VyprVPN got very slow and Astrill somehow got very fast. Dont understand it. But still, VyprVPN is far more better. Astrill Mac app is terrible, I often have to restart my computer because of it.

BTW I wanted to ask you, where is your website hosted? In China (Hong Kong), other Asian countries or US/EU?

I used Astrill for two years two – one in Guangzhou, one year traveling, and a few months in between traveling. I remember it not working twice in Xinjiang, but both times it was back on in a day or so.
Their headquarters are in the Philippines, and their customer service has a few odd quirks, but I didn’t have any major problems with it.
One feature I really liked was the ability to have the VPN hide my location *only* when browsing sites blocked in China – which meant I could download material from Baidu or other sites without switching off the VPN. For similar reasons, I also liked the ability to choose my location.

That’s a great point, Arianne and I’m glad you brought that up. The idea of selective VPN (where it only kicks in for certain blocked sites) isn’t something only Astrill does.

12VPN has a similar protocol called “China Hybrid” that only kicks on for known blocked websites. It’s quite nice!

As for the not working…I just have a hard time with a company that has multiple times a year where it doesn’t work – even if it was “back on in a day or so”. I haven’t had that happen with any of these other VPNs which is again why I couldn’t add Astrill to this list despite their obvious popularity here in China.

Hi Yang, great question. Each of these VPNs offers at least 2 simultaneous connections, which means that your computer and iPad can be connected to the VPN at the same time. These are simultaneous, though, so you can setup the VPN on as many devices as you want…you just can’t connect them all at the same time. Make sense?

Thanks for your info. Can you tell me the status of VyprVPN in China at this moment (assuming you are still using VyprVPN)? I ask this because I read that some VPNs may be good today but may not be good tomorrow. So I presume I can get the most updated info from you. I’m traveling to China next week and just need some “assurance” before I commit to VyprVPN. Thanks!

First of all, thank you for taking the time to write this up – it’s VERY much appreciated! I spent 2 hours researching for VPNs and a recent-date-parameter Google search brought me to your web page.

After hearing that many VPN services have been disrupted over the past few weeks, do all of the services listed above still work well with fast connections? Which 3 are the absolute best (price is no object, fastest, most reliable connections wanted)

The last time I was in China, I purchased 3 separate VPNs because of them getting blocked from time to time, I’m looking to buy the 3 best this time around.

Hey Mike, thanks for your comment. I’m very similar to you in that my livelihood depends on having a VPN so I have at least 3 active accounts from different providers at all times. Price doesn’t matter as much as consistent connection does.

The three that I use the most on my computer are 12VPN, Witopia and VyprVPN. Each have had their own little issues here and there, but with these three together I’ve never had a moment that I can’t connect to a VPN.

Hey, thanks for the comment and I’m glad you found it useful! Unfortunately, due to iOS restrictions they can’t offer the Chameleon protocol for iPhones, but I use their app on my phone and iPad and the other protocols work great. In fact, they are often speedier than the Chameleon so that should be good.

Thanks! I was “afraid” that L2TP protocol was blocked in China. Glad do know it works!

And like Mike above and you, I probably will sign up for a 2nd, maybe a 3rd VPN service as a backup. I am traveling on vacation and internet is a plus, not essencial. But you know, we live in a connected world :-)

I am testing Vypr now on my iPhone here in Brazil and will be soon in China.

Hi Josh, thanks for your video is awesome!!! I’m currently lived in Shenzhen (Shekou district) and my internet connection is China Telecom fiber optic 100M. Those 5 VPN you mention, which is the best for watching Hulu and Netflix?? Please let me know, again, thank you for this helpful video!!

Connection download speed from baidu cloud service thru Astrill became very slow in the last few months. It was above 3.2MByte/s once then it dropped down to 1.5MByte/s
Now in the last few days it’s even below 500KByte/s. Always using their China Optimized servers and StealthVPN protocol. Don’t know about their VIP servers, they want more money to let customers use those.
IPVanish speed connection with baidu using some of their Japan servers with OpenVPN UDP connection it’s always between 700KByte/s and 1000KByte/s
I was wondering if any of the VPN services you recommed here can go at 3MByte/s or higher with baidu then…

Great article – one caveat though, I use a Mac and an iPhone – I dropped Strong when their service dropped off a cliff a month ago and have been trying to replace their service.

I recently signed on with Pure VPN and it has been a terrible user experience. I was able to configure the service manually but have no use of the software or the App because neither of them will run. I have a new iphone 6 and a recently upgraded Mac and cannot get any of their software to run.

Once manually configured the VPN is excellent but I will have to switch servers manually when I run into trouble (and I will have to keep a copy of the servers with me as I cannot reach their site without a VPN.)

I would really like to find a VPN that works on Mac and iOS and could use some advice.

Been using ExpressVpn for a couple of years without any problems aside from occasional slow connection speed. However, for the past few months, I was not able to connect to it on any of my iOS devices without turning them off first. And I would have do this every time I need to use Expressvpn and this means numerous times a day. I contacted Expressvpn support and was told this is an iOS issue, nothing to do with them. I wonder does anyone else had this issue. Also, I just signed up Vyprvpn’s 3 day trial but discovered that I can’t contact live chat without vpn being on. That’s useless to me when my vpn is down and can’t contact support for immediate solution.

Hello Josh,
I will travel one month in China in few days. I’m not an expert… I just want to use Facebook and my website (created with wordpress.org) during my trip. I’m using a mac book air and it seems to be more difficult than windows with some of the VPNs… What is according to you the best VPN for my profile ? Thanks a lot !

Hi Josh,
Thanks for your post. I am going to China (Shanghai, Sichuan, Yunnan provinces) for the month of July. I have a Windows laptop and an iPhone I want connections on, and I really only want to be able to access Gmail and some mobile apps like Facebook and Snapchat. I would like the cheapest one since it’s only for a month, so I was thinking of PureVPN. What’s your input? (I’m totally clueless when it comes to this stuff).

Hey Danielle! If you just need something for a month, PureVPN should work just fine. There are plenty of other good options but there’s no need to complicate things if you’re happy with the price and features of this one :)

I am moving to Beijing in just under two weeks. I use Private Internet Access (PIA) here in Australia and it works great. However, I’ve been reading a lot of articles like yours and PIA is never mentioned.

I do, actually. They work here in my experience but when it came to picking out a top 5, I decided they didn’t make the cut. No particular reason, I’m just not the biggest fan of their software, I think.

Hi Josh, Thanks for the wonderful article! I just moved to Shanghai from Texas, and I was wondering if you could recommend any one of those VPNs that offers best connection to US servers. I mainly need VPN for ESPN/NFL Game pass since it’d be so hard to live a life without football :)
I’ve tried Nydus and PureVPN, but they seem to have better service for Japan/Hong Kong servers, which is fine if I only access FB/Twitter. But since I do need a U.S. IP address, can you help suggest a product? Thanks again!

For US servers, you’ll find a good number with VyprVPN, ExpressVPN or even 12VPN. I’m surprised you don’t think PureVPN has enough US servers – perhaps you tried them a few years ago? They have plenty of them now.

Thanks Josh! I’ll probably try Vypr this time. The problem with PureVPN is that their US servers were much slower than their Asian ones. My budget doesn’t allow me to subscribe to several VPNs at the same time, so it’d be great to just take one more stable than others.

Holly – I’m like you; I use Game Pass (from nfl.com). You might know this by now but I will say it anyway for others who may wonder: China doesn’t block nfl.com, so you don’t need a VPN to watch the games on game pass. I often like to try to stay on the VPN anyway, but it’s always better to get the normal speed of your local provider (nothing worse than having the game repeatedly freezing). China doesn’t mind the occasional American circus to go with the bread, and that generally means sports (I even saw some NFL games on Chinese TV last season, live, at 3 in the morning, with Chinese broadcasters and everything).

Milos- Thanks for the input. You’re right, China doesn’t block NFL. But apparently overseas users are priced differently from domestic users (at least for Game Rewind) at a much higher rate. Due to time difference and work schedule I can’t watch the games live, so I thought Game Rewind is sufficient :) LeTV now has some rights to broadcast NFL games in China but …. well it just weird, weird to hear commentaries in Chinese. Maybe I’m too picky lol

Hey Aniven, the issues you probably heard about happened during the big 70-year celebration here in China – and all the VPNs were having issues. It happens during any sensitive celebration or anniversary here in China.

It’s back to working well, as are all the other VPNs that I use, so rest assured you’ll be fine!

I’ve been living in Wuhan for two years and am always on the lookout for new or better VPN services. Like you, I am normally subscribed to about 5 at any given time.

What amazes me is how variable the experiences are. I’ll do a brief rundown of mine, just because anecdotes are useful in cases like this:

1) StrongVPN – the first one I subscribed to and I still subscribe, though since it got attacked early in the year it has been less useful for me. I use it mostly as a fallback. There is nothing wrong with it per se; it always connects and the service is good. The speeds simply don’t allow me to do what I mainly want to do, which is stream US TV (usually netflix and youtube are ok; but this website I subscribe to, USTVNOW, requires really fast streaming).

2) Vypr. This was the second one I used, and by far the most divergent in my experience from what others report who live elsewhere. At first, it worked rather well and it was my mainstay, but after about four months it just went ballistic, to the point where I couldn’t connect without being disconnected after ten minutes, every time I connected. It became useless, so I ditched it.

Fast forward six months later. I bought a new computer back in the States and figured that might allow Vypr to start working again, but no luck. I had the same issues and now I just stay away from Vypr. I can’t explain why this happens when everyone else has such positive experiences with it. Maybe it’s just Wuhan, and maybe just my area of Wuhan. Oh well.

3) Express – this has been my number one for most of my times here, but lately (since January) it has not been what it used to be. The Japan connection and Singapore connection don’t work anymore (for me), and the only server I can get tolerable speeds on is Hong Kong. Usually it’s good enough for youtube, but not for faster streaming. Express is my number 2 right now, but I gather from all the positive responses across China, it is probable the safest to recommend as the best.

4) 12vpn – I tried this after Express stopped working well for me earlier in the year. Signed up for a year subscription; unfortunate because it is by far the slowest of all my VPNs and I only use it when the other ones are wigging out for some reason. I have never been able to get even reliable youtube speeds on 12, no matter which protocol I use.

5) VPN.ac – this is the last one I tried, and it is by far the best for me. For a while it was in competition with Express, but now it is clearly in front. No problems connection, and always the fastest speeds (I use the Tokyo PPTP servers/protocols, and do continuous three month subscriptions – it’s kind of pricey).

One little footnote to VPN.ac, and my only negative with them, is that their customer service can be rather surly sometimes. They do provide help, so it’s no big gripe. Just noting it when Express (and, yes, Vypr and 12vpn) have quite excellent customer service.

I also tried a few other ones and had horrible results (pure, vpn ninja, I think Witopia but I can’t recall for sure, IPNvanish). The only suggestion I would make it is to consider VPN.ac if you haven’t already. I only heard of it when I was rifling through “best VPN in China” articles and saw it mentioned in one of those articles as among the five best. Normally, however, I see nothing about it (maybe it just works well in Wuhan but not elsewhere? Possible).

The most frustrating thing for me is speed, and it is the decisive thing. Your justification for not emphasizing it too much is perfectly reasonable, and I would only add that not only is speed extremely variable depending on where you are in China, but so is the more basic issue of connectivity – as per my terrible experience with Vypr (and honestly I haven’t heard of anyone having similar issues with it; it makes me wonder).

Regardless – I concur with Express and would add VPN.ac (from Wuhan, at least). I’ve never had to resort to trying Astrill, but I’ve been tempted. Can’t give an opinion on it.

I ve been using Astrill for a year now, but it sucks. Slow and not very reliable, and you have to buy a three months package as a minimum. . . so I ll switch toanother one now. Anyone that could be recommendedas the absolutely best?

Why is Astrill not on the list? I think a lot of people complain about Astrill because of their customer support, which I totally agree with. But for the best VPN in China for just their VPN Service(s) alone, as I have been living here in China for many years and tried all of the above, is Astrill.

I agree. I’ve lived in China for 13 years, the last 5 in Chongqing. I’ve used all the so-called “best” VPN’s and find Astrill to be the best. I have a China Unicom 60GB/10GB service and I almost always (except during Spring Festival) get 95% of my normal upload/download speed with Astrill. Their software integrates with my router and mobile devices. There technical support has gotten better. Most of my ex-pat friends are also using Astrill for the same reasons.Besides, I never trust “The Best” reviews that have a “buy” icon underneath. That implies the reviewer is being paid in one way or another. Just say’in.

It probably doesn’t hurt to keep in mind that your location can make a difference. I have learned (through several experiences and sources) parts of the FW are managed VERY locally, possibly even depending on what section of a city you’re in at the time. I’ve found it best not to commit to one service for more than a month at a time since using the same service too much sometimes results in it getting blocked.

I’ve tried out all the VPNs listed, granted only the trial versions, (express has a 7 day trial, vypr has 500mb, pure has 3 servers) while vypr and express works on and off, I have been literally unable to connect to any server for purevpn.
Initially ive had trouble with all 3 and contacted customer support via email, express had the fastest response, followed by vypr, pure has yet to get back to me after 3 days. I have not received any confirmation they even received a ticket.
So while pure’s pricing plan looks cheap, I would think twice about almost literally burning money…

I recently had a bad experience with Astrill. I signed up for a VPN with them because they advertise you can use a laptop/desktop and mobile device at the same time. I have an iPhone 4 and they have discontinued the Atrill ap support for this device. There is another way I can connect, but only if I am not on my laptop. So every time my mobile connects to the VPN. my computer VPN stops working. I have written to them about this and they have said that if I pay $60 more, on top of the $69 subscription I already have, I can use both devices at once.

WitopiaVPN got very slow with baidu in the last few days. It was 3MByte/s to 5MByte/s download speed on average using their Tokyo server. Yesterday it barely reached 500KByte/s. Today it can’t even get above 200KByte/s. What is going on?

Several of these offer Linux support, recently including ExpressVPN. Their client is text based, but for most Linux users that’s a non-issue. I’ve found their speeds to be among the best.

As I mentioned to another Linux user’s comment, AirVPN has a full GUI client for Linux as well ones for Windows and OS X. Their customer support is generally good, thought they do seem to expect a bit more knowledgeable customer. I’ve also noticed that speeds tend to drop if I use them a lot.

I managed to get LimeVPN to work here for a while, but then found their Windows client suddently wasn’t able to retrieve server addresses. My guess is it was because their server addresses had “vpn” in the name. However, they also offered support for SoftEther in several locations. I eventually cancelled my service because I began having trouble connecting to their servers no matter what protocol or software I used.

I’ve also set up my own servers with VPN software. There are several benefits to this, chiefly being tightwad-friendly. Dig up an old desktop, put it at a friend’s house and you have VPN service for free. You can also rent a server for as cheap as $2/month. There’s the added advantage of always having an SSH tunnel even if a protocol is blocked. Blocking SSH would seriously cripple the Internet. However, SSH tends to get throttled after a while if you’re using it as a tunnel – packets start dropping and then you lose the whole connection. Still, you can usually connect long enough to download your Gmail or the other email services that have been blocked.

SoftEther, the protocol I mentioned above, is relatively easy to set up on a server. There’s great server manager software that works well in Windows which makes adding users, tracking usage, etc very easy. My biggest complaint with SoftEther is that there’s no GUI for Linux even though the developers suggest you install it on a Linux server. They have a command line client for Linux, but it’s pretty clunky and a pain for even a frequent Linux user. However, a SoftEther server will accept L2TP and SSTP connections which provides you with a fairly easy setup for Linux or Android.

There are more and more restrictions on the Internet in China, and I Wonder if 12VPN or ExpressVPN are still reliable at the moment in China. I am going there for a month and would like to know if I need to download it before leaving.
Thanks

Hey Rachel, I’m still using both of them from within China so…I think they’re reliable! Whichever VPN you choose, I definitely recommend that you get everything set up before you head out to China. It’s MUCH easier that way. Have a good trip!

Hi…just downloaded express vpn gor my trip to china Fri ny..tomorrow. I can’t seem to get an email respoused in time
So I turn to u..when do I choose a server ( I assume LA in California) and begin. Do I choose before I leave us or after I reach china?
Hope u get this in time..:(. TIA#!

I’ve used witopia in the UAE with great success, but will be moving to China this month. I would like a solid VPN that I can use on a buffalo router to use Apple TV or a roku. Which VPN do you recommend for this type of set up?

Thanks for the informative reviews Josh. In you experience, does VyprVPN and PureVPN services get blocked in China (like Astrill) during high security times? And if so, is one more reliable than the other?

I have done extensive testing of many VPNs in China including some of the ones recommended on this page, and some others as well. You can see my detailed VPN in China blog to see which servers perform the best with China Telecom and China Unicom.

Just a little advice from my side.. Choosing a VPN provider is more related to which IP you use and your location in China. Vypr for instance does not have shared servers with China Telecom in any foreign countries.. Their speed on China Telecom is dead slow, on China Unicom on the other hand usually the fastest. (Keep in mind this is Shanghai region!!) Vypr doesn’t connect to China Mobile 4G in Shanghai, while others have no problem. Vypr connects easily on China Mobile in Jiangsu province. As a Shanghai resident with China Telecom broadband Vypr was completely useless, but I still believe that its a good product in general. Too bad I had to let their offer for 60% discount pass and switch to Express.

I am Astrill user from China since 2014. I am not an IT geek but shocked that you do not have Astrill in this list. Astrill service and support is best among all. I don’t know much about computers so I always prefer their remote desktop when I mess up something on my PC. Their technicians always helped me to get back online to access international sites in no time.

I specifically took Astrill off this list because of their notoriously bad customer support. They have well-publicized incidents where their support has publicly (on Twitter) called its user base stupid, they’ve been horrible in my experience and they don’t seem to care or apologize.

The service works well in China, that I agree. But the fact that I have to give over my phone number to use them is enough to make me say “no, thank you”.

Thanks to this review I used NordVPN for two weeks I have been in China. Before going I chatted with customer support about possible issues and got directions what to do if I were unable to connect. Basically the only thing I had to do was pick servers with highest number to stay unblocked… Once I came back I of course had no real use for the service anymore and could have taken the 30 day refund guarantee :D But decided not to, since the service was really great. Now I use it for streaming until the month I have runs out, perhaps I will renew it, but I am not a security freak so we will see.

Great feedback, George! The only thing I would add is that although there is no need for a VPN to unblock websites once you leave China, there is still need for a VPN. In fact, even when I’m back in the US, I use a VPN every day when I connect to a public wifi network.

The original intent of a VPN is to encrypt data that is being sent between two servers. While this can help unblock websites in places like China, the reality is that it’s super important when you do something like connect to the internet at an airport or coffee shop. We think that we’re safe when we connect to these public wifi networks, but we’re not. We’re quite vulnerable!

Using a VPN anywhere outside your home in this day and age of hacking and identity theft isn’t just a good idea, it’s becoming a necessity.

I have an active NordVPN subscription, but since VPNs are outlawed in China, I am worried to use it. I am only going to be in China for a week so I can live without outside internet during that time. Not sure if the risk is worth it, though if I were staying longer I would probably use it sooner or later. What do you think about that?

There’s no real risk, Isla. The only risk is that you’ll arrive in China and it might not connect. Using a VPN as a foreigner has never caused any problems – I’ve used a VPN every single day since I last arrived in 2013!

Have you tried VPN.ac? Apart from their appalling customer service I’ve heard a lot about them being best VPN for China recently, at least here in Xiamen anyways. I also have ExpressVPN and NordVPN like you do, so far NordVPN are performing far better than EVPN. Thanks for all your valuable advice 👍

Been visiting a friend of mine last week in China, and bought nordvpn. Haven’t had any problems using it! Just one thing to mention reach out to their support before going to China in regards to your trip, they’ll give you some useful advice.

China’s ISP does a good job on blocking VPNs.. It should be hard for the people living in there full time. I’m using NordVPN, and it worked fine while I was in China, so a recommendation from me, I think it’s a reliable choice.

In October China definitely cracked down on VPNs, but that’s pretty normal once or twice a year. Thankfully, there are companies like ExpressVPN that work fast to fix any connection issues. I’d recommend staying with them and maybe supplementing with another good one like NordVPN or VyprVPN – both of which I use daily.

According to your experience, which VPN provider, in general, offers the most servers from China? I know this question is pretty simple outside China. But it becomes tricky and volatile over areas and periods inside China where the GFW plays its role.
Thanks!